


a love for another life

by imnotanironwall



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Canon Compliant, F/F, Mentions of Canonical Character Death, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 19:10:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imnotanironwall/pseuds/imnotanironwall
Summary: Larxene doesn't care about much but herself, really. But when she meets a lost keyblade wielder in the Realm of Darkness, she finds herself enthralled.





	a love for another life

**Author's Note:**

> Requested on twitter.

**i.**

"Larxene do this, Larxene do that," she mimics with a deep voice as a corridor of darkness close behind her. "I'm not their dog! Aah, I can't wait to kill them all." 

She sighs, darkness grasping in vain at her long cloak. She opens her book after shaking her head, leaving all thoughts of those losers calling themselves Organisation XIII behind her. 

The Realm of Darkness is not the most pleasant of places, even for her, but she cannot have a moment of peace in The World That Never Was, so she's stuck with going back and forth for that sweet quiet she desperately needs. 

Quiet that does not last quite enough. 

Footsteps echo through the emptiness, one after the other, slow and tired. Larxene doesn't recognize the sound of the Organisation's boots. She raises her eyebrows, suddenly curious about the fool that lost themself in such a place. 

She peaks over the roof she laid on and immediately spots the blue-haired individual wandering. She frowns, the color too similar to a certain fellow member she'd rather not see, but the weapon in their hand catches her attention. 

Black handle, white guard, followed by a dark blue shaft, shaped in the form of a key - a keyblade. She vaguely remembers the "_ Superior _" talking about them. 

"And who might you be?" she coos from a distance as she watches the individual stops and looks around, on guard for any Heartless coming their way. They talk, to themself and the wandering souls that haunt them, fist clenched around their keyblade with determination. Some would call it bravery, Larxene only think of it as disillusionment. _ No one survives the darkness _.

**ii.**

She's more than surprised and intrigued when she comes back weeks later and that same keyblade wielder is still there, walking aimlessly through fallen words. They sure are something else. 

Larxene follows from a distance, not wanting to attract their attention just yet. It's not like she wouldn't able to take them down if they attacked her, they wouldn't stand a chance really, but she likes observing them. There's… _ something _to them that captivates her. How did they survive for so long in the Darkness? Is it the power of the keyblade, or is it simply their heart? Do they even have one? 

Lost in thoughts, she steps on a stick that cracks loudly under her boots. Well, that's that for her spying - there's a reason she's not the assassin. 

The blue-haired individual wipes around, keyblade drawn in front of them. "Is someone there?" 

Larxene doesn't move, watching as they walk toward her. As they come forward, she can see their face better. She's a woman, with deep bags under her blue eyes. She doesn't smile when she spots Larxene, face cast in the shadow of her hood. "Who are you?" The woman calls, frowning with such intensity Larxene has to suppress a comment. 

"Do I know you?" Her gaze softens, sad and desperate - almost resigned to her own madness. "Are you a memory among these shadows as well?" 

Larxene huffs, hands on her hips. _ How dare she _.

The blonde brushes aside the keyblade raised toward her and, with a quick step, close the distance between them. She pushes the woman's chin up with one finger and when their eyes meet, she smirks. "You poor soul," she drawls with false compassion. 

The woman flinches away, stumbling backward. She raises her keyblade between them, firmly holding it with two hands. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" 

Larxene raises a hand and gestures wildly, the other resting upon her hip. "I was taking a walk, gotta get away from my boss before I got send on another boring mission," she sighs dramatically. "The name's Larxene, but I doubt you'll remember the next time we see each other - if you're still here that's it."

The woman gasps, lowering her keyblade. Something glints in her eyes - hopes, maybe. "You know how to get out?" 

Larxene _ hmms _longly before pointing a finger at the woman. "Too bad I don't reveal my secret to strangers." She turns around, putting on a show of walking away like she's leaving. A hand grabs her wrist, stopping her in her track. 

"Please, I _ need _ to get out. I made a promise." The plea turns something in her stomach, something pierces through the hole of her not-heart. She brushes the feeling away. The woman adds after a beat, "My name's Aqua." 

Larxene sighs, loudly, and turns on her heels to face the woman. "Well, _ Aqua _ . I'd **love ** to help," she says, empathizing greatly on the **o**. She shrugs. "But you wouldn't survive the trip. Consumed by darkness before you get out of the portal. And that would suck for your promise." 

The look of defeat on her face almost pains Larxene, a memory flares deep inside of her - unknown yet familiar -, she quickly adds. "Keep walking and you'll find the exit, there should be one somewhere." 

She almost swears to come back to help, and it feels like a promise she couldn't keep. One she still needs to fulfill. 

She shakes her hand free from Aqua's grip, too strong and warm for her liking. "_ Anyway _. I have work to do. Don't be boring and fall to darkness while I'm gone." 

The words are bittersweet on her tongue as she leaves Aqua behind, the ghost of another pleading for her to save this one heart, _ at least save _ ** _her_ **. Larxene grits her teeth and crosses her arms tightly around herself as she walks through a Corridor, begging for her memories to go away.

**iii.**

She comes and goes, chatting with Aqua during her free time. She's an interesting woman. 

The stories she tells picture a world Larxene doesn't know and cannot find. She describes boys the blonde believes are dead and not simply lost. Sometimes Aqua dreams of them, and Larxene can see her fall to the Darkness as she clutches those memories. The fire in her eyes dies down, the gleam of her charm is not as bright anymore. 

Until one day she comes and Aqua is not alone. And for a second, Larxene thinks it's that child the woman as been talking about, but no, it's a mouse. _ The _ mouse. So Larxene stays behind and watches, not unlike that first time. Aqua hopes again, but not thanks to her. She doesn't know if she should feel anything, but her chest seems to tighten at the thought. She ignores it. 

She has her own duty now, and before she can see Aqua fall, she falls herself. Castle Oblivion is her end, _ Larxene's _ end - not the other, not the one waiting to come back and hurt her with those unfulfilled promises and hopeless dreams of watching long pink hair flow in the wind. 

She gets her heart back and pierces her own chest to give it up, _ again _, to anyone who would take it. She forgets once more. Not everything, but the memories of a shy girl leave her long enough for her eyes to turn gold and Larxene is back. 

She cannot find Aqua when she calls for her.

**iv.**

She tells herself she is not looking for Aqua, she's simply _ exploring the Realm of Darkness for a good reading spot _ \- or so she says to Marluxia when he asks where she is going instead of focusing on her one and only job.

Aqua is nowhere to be found and the dread settles deep inside Larxene's stomach. Feelings similar to guilt overtakes her. She has fallen and Larxene couldn't save her either - in the dead of the night, she wonders if Marluxia, too, will eventually leave her behind. 

But the waves bring with them a body, and soon Larxene recognizes a face that she thought gone forever. She has lost her fight against the Darkness, it found the cracks in her heart, her hair turned white and her eyes gold - Larxene groans when she thinks of her own golden gaze.

"So you've fallen to Darkness while I was gone.” She states as the woman gets up. “I guess keyblade wielders are not as strong as everyone thinks they are," she giggles to herself.

Aqua's usual expressive face is completely blank as she stares into the horizon, at the light piercing through the veil - tempting, unreachable. She doesn't turn toward Larxene when she speaks.

"You abandoned me," she accuses with a raspy voice, Larxene shivers at the sound. "With no means to defend myself against the Heartless. You knew the Darkness was getting to me, and you let it consume me." 

The urge to summon her knives itches, fists clenching and unclenching in an attempt to contain herself. Instead, she points an accusing finger toward Aqua. "One of your stupid keyblade friend and his _ pets _ killed me! And now I'll turn into that geezer's puppet if those losers can't do their job. I didn't have time to help you."

She wouldn't have, anyway, not after learning Aqua is one of the Guardian of Lights _ \- of what light though _. 

"They're looking for you anyway. Rejoice!" She says, one half of her face betraying her disappointment and anger. "You're getting out of here and becoming the hero you were always meant to be!" 

She crosses her arms over her chest, eyebrows knitted. She looks away, mumbling to herself "_ what a bummer _" before she vanishes. 

**v.**

The sun sets over Castle Oblivion, or rather, the Land of Departure. There are grass and trees and flowers and beautiful pillars. Memories of a world long gone come and go through Larxene's mind as she sits in the middle of a field. 

Tomorrow, this world will be shrouded in darkness once more - or maybe it won't, but she doesn't hope for that either. They will fight and win, or maybe she'll throw another coup but Marluxia doesn't seem as inclined to do so this time. 

Speaking of him, she wonders if she should have come with him there. Maybe the dandelions would have awoken his memories, or perhaps seeing Ventus again. Larxene knows everything, but the others do not - what's the point of remembering when she's still all alone. 

"What are you doing here?" A familiar voice asks, and she hates herself for turning around so quickly like she _ craved _ that sound.

If it weren't for the dark bag under her eyes and her shaking hands, ready to summon her keyblade at any hasty movement, no one could tell Aqua had gone through hell and came back. Her hair and eyes are back to that deep blue, shining with the Light of a world in between. 

Larxene gets up, slowly, taking her time as she brushes away the grass on her cloak. She shrugs. "Doing some recon before the big fight tomorrow. You know, making sure you're all set before we crush you into the dust." 

She giggles, bringing a hand to her mouth. She taps her cheek with a finger, a smirk on her lips. "We wouldn't want the fight to be too easy. That'd be _ so boring _." 

Aqua clenches her fist, looking to the ground with brow furrows, mouth pressed into a thin line. Larxene is about to laugh again when the blue-haired woman closes the distance between them in the blink of an eye and grabs Larxene's wrist. Her eyes are determined but there's a fondness to her gaze as she peers into the blonde's golden eyes.

"You don't need to fight. Stay here, Larxene." 

The moment takes her by surprise. She stumbles back and away from Aqua but the latter catches her by the waist and brings their body ever closer. "Wh-"

"I remember everything you told me in the Realm of Darkness, I remember how you looked at me. Don't cast your life away for something, someone who doesn't see you for you are." She let go of Larxene's wrist to cup her cheek. Her hands are marred with scars, calloused with decades of fighting against something much bigger than her. She brushes her thumb against Larxene's lower lip, breathes against her mouth. They're so close it's intoxicating. 

"Stay with me."

A sob escapes her as a fire flares up somewhere inside a heart that isn't there, and she pushes Aqua away, taking a few steps back herself. 

"What are you doing!?" She shouts, anger boiling under her skin. Darkness erupts from her hand and a single knife appears between her fingers, she presses her thumb to the sharp blade to ground herself. 

"Are you trying to trick me into joining your little bunch of losers?" She spits, teeth bared and eyes wide. 

"Larxene- No, of course not!" The hurt in Aqua's eyes make her recoil, shame and guilt piercing her hollow chest. “I want us to walk together, to be _ something _.”

She hugs herself tightly, electricity flying around her like a shield. She looks to the ground, voice merely above a whisper. "I can't. I have my own promises." She grips at her cloth tightly, feeling the leather squeaks under her fingers. "Maybe in another life, but not this one. Not now." And she vanishes one last time through a Corridor. 

The battle at the Keyblade Graveyard wound them all, some more than others, but relief floods through Aqua the moment her family step into their homeworld. They're back, they're home, _ all of them _. She cries of joy in the quiet of her room, lights illuminating every corner. She fulfilled her promise, found them and brought them back to the safety of their home. They can plan, rebuild what has been lost. 

Not everything is perfect, but it will have to do. 

When, months later, blonde hair and emerald eyes greet her, keyblade in one hand, she even lets herself think the future might be bright.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I write both characters so I hope I didn't butcher them too much. I really hope the next game(s) will show Larxene/Elrena a lot more! 
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/imnotanironwall)


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